Wednesday, November 28, 2012

This is kind of fun. In a rare moment, I get to talk about something enjoyable instead of dissecting something that some misguided asshole said about LGBT individuals. As you all know, the state of Washington recently voted in favor of Marriage Equality. While this was a great victory for everyone in the state of Washington (and yes, I include you anti-gay Christians, my hope is that you'll come around), in some respects the work is only just beginning. Numerous state forms that were written to only specify heterosexual couples must now be modified to be inclusive. In an interesting move, the Health Department is asking the public for suggestions.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

If you follow NOM on Twitter, you might have noticed their criticism of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for "choosing gay marriage over safer streets" because he highlighted Marriage Equality as a priority, and people get murdered in Chicago, and obviously mentioning the former means you don't give a shit about the latter. Or something.

Amid all this one has to wonder, if NOM is so concerned about the safety of Chicagoans, why isn't it using some of it's massive pile of Catholic dough to aide law enforcement agencies (or maybe to feed the poor, but that's another discussion entirely).

NOM President Brian Brown, courtesy of Daily Kos

Therein lies the evil of NOM, it assumes that its supporters are either so stupid (or so vile and willing to lie) that they miss the hypocrisy. Shameful.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Editor's Note: Most of the entries here deal with the LGBT community and the issues that affect us as a group. However, from time to time Adam and I will want to share things from our personal lives. There are a lot of communities in which people seem to need to possess a certain amount of cred to be considered a real_______. There are street gangs, there is sports fandom, and more and more, we're seeing that it is present in certain circles of nerdiness, particularly when a female wanders into the fold. Nerds hate the "fake" nerd girl. Why?

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

I encountered the following in the politics subsection of an unrelated message board. I was going to post the quote in its entirety and respond after (because I think it raises several good talking points), but I think it is simply too large for me to be able to do that effectively. I have chopped the entire post down to the relevant portions and fixed the punctuation for readability's sake.

Monday, November 12, 2012

The Seattle Sounders' Marc Burch was caught calling an opponent a "faggot" on camera during last week's playoff match against Real Salt Lake. I've written about this before, when the NHL's Wayne Simmonds was caught doing the same to Sean Avery. The difference is that MLS came down hard on Burch, fining him and suspending him for three games, at least two of which will be playoff games. Meanwhile, the NHL took no action against Wayne Simmonds claiming that the incredibly damning video didn't constitute proof of what he said. Whether the fact that Simmonds is black and had been on the other side of some insensitive comments a week previous, or that the target was Sean Avery (the RSL of the NHL for you soccer fans) played into the NHL's decision is unclear.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Editor's Note: Most of the entries here deal with the LGBT community and the issues that affect us as a group. However, from time to time Adam and I will want to share things from our personal lives.
As some of you are probably aware, my current "job" is writing fiction as an independent author. Lately, instead of leading off with my Engineering Degree when people ask what I do for a living, I've been telling people that I'm a writer, mainly in the hopes that it will come (financially) true eventually. As you'd expect, there are a lot of common and uncommon questions that come with that admission. These are them:

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Early this morning (on West Coast time anyway), I had a brief conversation via Twitter with Patrick Burke, co-founder and President of the You Can Play Project dedicated to combating homophobia in sports. The conversation began when Burke said that a part of the project has, and will continue to be focused on working with fans, i.e. to combat homophobia in sports arenas (and through that in sports fandom as a whole).

I then asked if it would be within the scope of You Can Play's mission to also work on behalf of the transgender community. Transgender individuals often find themselves in a difficult situation in sports arenas. Unisex bathrooms are few and far between, often full, and typically "supposed" to be used by families. That leaves transgender individuals with the unenviable task of choosing between the restroom of their birth gender (which is what they are legally supposed to do in most states) or choosing between the gender they identify as, present as, or to put it more bluntly (and offensively), most resemble. That conversation went as follows (I have adjusted some of the character-limit-driven poor grammar and abbreviations):

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

I thought about making this an off topic entry, but Star Trek has been a trailblazer in terms of support for minorities. Think back to the The Original Series...where else in the 1960s could you find a TV show that featured an African American in Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), an Asian (ancestry-wise) American in George Takei (Hikaru Sulu), a Russian (ancestry-wise) American in Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov), and a Canadian playing a Scot in James Doohan (Montgomery Scott)? So too has Star Trek been a boon for the LGBT community, so we are on topic punching in a cruising speed of warp 9.975.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

This past week, Hurricane Sandy battered the east coast and New York City and New Jersey in particular, leaving many without power, and many more without homes. While their loss cannot be understated, and any assistance that people can offer to anyone is a positive step, I want to focus on a very specific group that Sandy has affected.

Friday, November 2, 2012

We're going Inception style here, as I do a commentary on an article that is, in part, a commentary on a third article. The article's author Nick Rynerson thinks that Dan Savage, an outspoken LGBT activist and gay father, makes a pro-family (code for anti-LGBT) statement by being married and raising children with his partner. Rynerson argues that in doing so, Savage shows that God has stamped an innate desire in everyone to trend towards a "covenantal" family structure.

Amazing. I don't even know where to begin. Seriously.

I guess the first part that jumps out at me is how Rynerson seems completely unaware that Savage is an outspoken proponent of polyamory, which throws his entire argument out the window. Savage's heart isn't innately stamped to try and emulate anything. And hell, if Savage really were trying to get as close to the lofty institution of heterosexual marriage as he could, he and his partner would probably be divorced and fighting a bitter custody battle over the kids by now.

I also particularly enjoyed how the author condescendingly paints LGBT individuals as a bunch of sinners cutely trying to imitate their superior heterosexual counterparts. (Because, despite his family, Savage is still an awful human being that no one should listen to. That point is made repeatedly.)

But Rynerson accidentally makes a good point overall, one I felt necessary to highlight in the comments. Given his revelation that many LGBT individuals are raising children with their partner in stable homes, one wonders how religious people like him can continue to comdemn marriage equality. After all, one would think they'd want those children to be afforded all the financial benefits of their heterosexually-parented counterparts, right?

(Answer: Wrong. Being "pro-family" isn't about doing what's best for children. It's about hating gays.)

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Editor's Note: Most of the entries here deal with the LGBT community and the issues that affect us as a group. However, from time to time Adam and I will want to share things from our personal lives.I feel like such a shill for doing this, so I'll start off by saying that I am not in any way affiliated with Hattrick other than having enjoyed playing it for the past 10-ish years. But seriously if you like soccer and statistics and math and fantasy sports...you should play Hattrick.

I've been watching a sort of minor war develop between various parties on Twitter and Facebook. On one side you've got the hardcore Obama supporters, who argue that a vote for a third party is a vote for Romney, especially in swing states. On the other, you've got the Greens (mostly) and Libertarians that argue that the way the American political system (and any political systems that involves voting of any kind) is supposed to work is that you vote for the candidate you most believe in, not the best among few, relatively crappy, choices.